Report of Committee on Digital Payments

December 10, 2016

The Committee on Digital Payments constituted by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs under the Chairmanship of Shri. Ratan P. Watal, Principal Advisor, NITI Aayog.

This Committee was seized of the developments following the decision of the Government to cancel legal tender character of currency of high denominations. The Committee has calibrated its recommendations accordingly and has provided a suitable framework for smooth and speedy transition towards a Digital Payments Economy.

The terms of reference and composition of this Committee were as follows:

To study and recommend need for charges, if any, in the regulatory mechanism and any legislation, relevant for the purpose of promotion of payments by digital modes

To study and recommend ways for leveraging Unique Identification Number or any other proof of identity for authentication of card/digital transactions and setting up of a Centralised KYC Registry;

To study introduction of single window system of Payment Gateway to accept all types of Cards/ Digital Payments of Government receipts;

To study feasibility and framing rules for creating a payments history of all Digital Payments and create necessary linkage between payments transaction history and credit information;

To study and recommend various measures to incentivize transactions through cards and digital means.

To study global best practices in payments including initiatives taken by various Governments/ Government Agencies

To identify market failure (s), if any, along with suitable interventions that may be implemented to promote payment by card/digital means

To identify regulatory bottlenecks, if any, and suggest changes to promote payment by card/ digital means

To study and make recommendations on any other matter related to promotion of payments through Cards and Digital Means

The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) programme team headed by Shri. Ashish Aggarwal acted as the secretariat for this Committee. The team also included Shri. Pratik Datta, Shri. Aditya Kumar Rajput & Shri. Indrajeet Sarkar.

Recommendations:

It submitted its Final Report to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. In its Report, the Committee has recommended that a medium term strategy for accelerating growth of Digital Payments in India with a regulatory regime which is conducive to bridging the Digital divide by promoting competition, open access & interoperability in payments.

The Report recommends inclusion of financially and socially excluded groups and assimilation of emerging technologies in the market, while safeguarding security of Digital Transactions and providing level playing to all stakeholders and new players who will enter this new transaction space.

It has suggested inter-operability of the payments system between banks and non-banks, up-gradation of the digital payment infrastructure and institutions and a framework to reward innovations and for leading efforts in enabling digital payments.